West Milford and Lakeland are following through on their promise to explore leaving the Big North Conference. And they've already found a new home.
Both Passaic County schools will have an official appeal at a closed hearing on Jan. 30 at the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association office in Robbinsville. Both schools have already been provisionally accepted into the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC), which is largely made up of Morris and Sussex county schools, starting this fall.
“We’re just keeping all our options open and we will see what happens with the hearing,” West Milford athletic director Joe Trentacosta said Monday.
“We made a motion and approved their addition to our conference because we thought that might help (with) the NJSIAA ruling,” NJAC executive director John DiColo said. “If they grant the appeal, we’re ready to put them in and start in the fall of 2024. We’ve already approved where they’ll go and all those things. It’s a matter of getting approval for them to leave the Big North from the NJSIAA.”
The Big North is a 44-team grouping of schools from Bergen and Passaic counties, spread across seven divisions for soccer, basketball, baseball and wrestling (among others).
Football is a different story. Lakeland and West Milford play in the Super Football Conference. If they leave the Big North for the NJAC, they can remain in the SFC for football.
Lakeland, West Milford, and originally Passaic Valley, which later backed off, complained about their placement in the Big North Independence Division last fall, citing enrollment differences between themselves and their divisional opponents. Most notably, division opponent Fair Lawn is a Group 4 school.
The Big North constitution states that schools should not be in the same division as schools that are two groups apart. In other words, Group 2 schools shouldn’t be playing Group 4s.
The Big North approved the same divisions for the 2024-25 and 25-26 scheduling cycle with Lakeland and West Milford grouped with Fair Lawn, Passaic Valley, Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley. Behind the scenes, the goal was to come up with a different alignment for the following two-year cycle, starting in 2026-27, that better fit Lakeland and West Milford.
Big North proposal
NorthJersey.com obtained a copy of the Big North proposal for 2026-27. It does significantly reshape the conference, but has not been approved:
The United Division (Don Bosco, St. Joseph, Bergen Catholic, Paramus Catholic, DePaul, Holy Angels and Immaculate Heart Academy) is all non-public schools and would stay the same.
The Liberty Division (Clifton, Passaic Tech, Passaic, Kennedy, Eastside and Bergen Tech) would remain the same.
The Patriot Division (Pascack Hills, Westwood, River Dell, Ramsey and Mahwah) would stay intact.
Fair Lawn and Wayne Valley would enter the Freedom Division with Northern Highlands, Ridgewood, Hackensack and Ramapo.
Indian Hills, one of the smallest schools in the Big North, would enter the Independence Division, along with Wayne Hills, Passaic Valley, Lakeland and West Milford.
Paramus would join the National Division with Tenafly, Old Tappan, Demarest, Pascack Valley and Teaneck.
Bergenfield would join the American Division with Fort Lee, Dwight-Morrow, Cliffside Park, Dumont and Ridgefield Park.
Which is a better fit?
On paper, it looks like the Big North is giving Lakeland and West Milford the playing field it wants starting in 2026, but that may be too late. There is no doubt that the two schools fit nicely with the NJAC footprint.
“They fit much better with the enrollments and the competitiveness of our schools," DiColo said. "Even though it expands our boundaries into Passaic County, we’re already [in] Warren County, Sussex County and Morris County, they are in the Route 23 corridor, pretty close. Lakeland is on the outskirts, but so is High Point, so is North Warren, so is Chatham or Madison. People are not looking at transportation the way they used to when we started the league back in ’09. Geography was a big factor. Now, you play them once. It’s not that big of a deal.”
The Big North has been relatively stable since merging the various pieces of the old NNJIL, NBIL, BCSL and B-PSL conferences. Big North officials clearly feel that letting Lakeland and West Milford go could cause a domino effect with other schools seeking to depart. Also, if they win the appeal from the NJSIAA and enter the NJAC starting in the fall, the Big North would have to redo its alignment and schedules.
Though DiColo would not reveal which divisions Lakeland and West Milford would join, he said NJAC athletic directors would be able to add the newcomers in 2024-25 by eliminating independent games or days off. The NJAC realigns its divisions and schedules annually.
“It started in the fall, when they asked to leave the Big North,” DiColo said. “They had the vote in late fall, and they (Big North) said no. In the meantime, we took a straw vote, and then took an official vote when we knew they were appealing and were serious. I understand the Big North’s position. You don’t want teams to leave your conference because it affects your schedules.”
When it comes to league and divisional alignments, there are three factors that are considered: school size, geography and competitive balance.
Lakeland and West Milford are competitive in sports the Big North offers. Currently, the West Milford boys basketball team is 6-10, the girls are 7-6. The Lakeland boys basketball team is 2-9 and winless in the division, and the girls are 3-10, also winless in league play. The Lakeland wrestling team just won a share of the Passaic County title over the weekend.
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